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The IT Division took occupancy of its new, green building in October 2015. The event was preceded by months of interventions aimed at preparing staff for the change, not only of location, but also of work style and culture. After the dust and the emotions had settled, we ran a post-occupancy survey in April of this year. The raw, aggregate results may be viewed here:

There are many interesting conclusions to be made, one of which is that although concerns over personal and storage space were vocally expressed before the move, the vast majority of staff is quite satisfied.

We intend to repeat the survey in future in order to “take the temperature” and track whether the operation of the building, as an integral part of our work system, is improving.

Our fairly intensive participation in the design process for the new IT building got me thinking about what a place of work is and why a knowledge organisation, like an IT division, would have one. The new building is essentially an office building: it will not house technical infrastructure such as the data centre, but will be the place of work for the division’s engineers, system administrators, technicians, architects, analysts, software developers, managers, etc.

Besides the admittedly exciting “green” design features, such as the vertical garden, optimal orientation, solar PV panels, rainwater harvesting, bicycle store, and various other efficiency elements that will make it far more energy-efficient and sustainable than other buildings of its type, the other intriguing possibility that it presents is the opportunity to influence change in the culture of the IT division. The catalyst for this “change of culture” could be the university’s new norms that require that all new office buildings be “open plan”. For an organisation that has become accustomed to being housed for the past 25 years in what can only be described as a “rabbit warren” of cellular offices leading off dark, desolate corridors, this is a radical departure. There seems to be much trepidation and negativity about our “open plan” future, some of which at least is simply related to humans’ default discomfort with change of any sort 1. (more…)

Construction on the IT Division’s new building commences early in 2014. In line with the goal of constructing and operating a “green” building, the IT Division has, along with the Facilities Management Division, ensured that the design incorporates the necessary for solar PV arrays on the roof and integration into the energy supply. IT has requested the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies (CRSES) to model solar power generation for the building and to calculate the financial pay back period.

The intention is that, based on the models, the IT Division will approach the Finance Division for a loan to incorporate solar energy generation into the building construction project.